MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s weapons manufacturers have developed a drone, media reported. Azerbaijan, which is still officially at war with Armenia, has been increasing military spending. It has close links with the Russian and Israeli defence sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan questioned businessman Ibrahim Ibrahimov over an outstanding loan from the state-linked International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), media reported, the second high-profile Azerbaijani company owner to be hauled into a police station in a week.
Turan news agency reported that Mr Ibrahimov took a loans $57m, but sources in IBA told the news agency that the sum was actually $850m.
Last week police detained Nizami Piriyev, head of Azerbaijani Methanol Company. He was charged with financial fraud. Mr Piriyev is also charged with not repaying bank loans.
Natiq Cafarli, economist and executive director of ReAL opposition movement said in an interview with faktxeber.com that he does not expect the oligarchs to stay in jail for a long time. He said that the government just wants to recover its money.
“The ruling party does not need a lot of news around famous people,” he said. “They will be released soon.”
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Outside the financial sector, SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state energy company, is the largest company in Georgia, media reported quoting research from Ilia University in Tbilisi. SOCAR Petroleum Georgia is a SOCAR subsidiary. Its main business in Georgia is a network of petrol stations.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swiss railway rolling stock manufacturer Stadler has won a 70m euro contract to deliver five double decker carriages to Azerbaijan’s railway company, media reported. The first two carriages will be put into operation ahead of the European Games in Baku next month.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Constitutional Court ruled that loans taken out in US dollars before the 30% devaluation of the Azerbaijani manat in February have to be repaid in full. Borrowers had hoped the Court would agree for debt to be repaid in manat at the lower rate.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
SUMQAYIT/Azerbaijan, MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Absheron, the narrow peninsula surrounding Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, gives a remarkable insight into the country’s patchy oil-funded growth.
Dystopian industrial decay, dirty villages of crumbling homes and bleak oil fields of rusty drills share the same few dusty square miles with newly built sumptuous seaside resorts, whitewashed villas and long stretches of crowded beaches dotted with flashy restaurants and garish wedding palaces.
The coexistence of opposites is arguably not a harmonic one. Embarrassed by the deteriorating state of Absheron’s infrastructure and the dire living conditions of much of its population Azerbaijan’s political elite seems to have opted for the creation of a Potemkin-façade of disproportionate lavishness.
Along the modern highway connecting Heydar Aliyev International Airport to the resort town of Buzovna high marble walls veil the view of surrounding shantytowns and oil spills.
Azerbaijan’s government indulges in creating unrepresentative showcases of the country, while the huge revenues of the oil and gas industry centred in and around Absheron, fail to filter down to the local inhabitants.
The uneven distribution of both profits and investments is epitomised by the fate of Sumqayit, Absheron’s biggest town. A thriving industrial centre during Soviet times, this northern shore town of concrete blocks and wide alleys now feels abandoned.
Resentment towards the government is high in Sumqayit and the town has become a breeding ground for religious extremism. Last year there were reports that Sumqayit had become a hotbed for Syria-bound would-be jihadists and a string of arrests and search operations were carried around town.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Seemingly in a fit of pique, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev said he will not attend an EU summit in Riga later this month designed to bring countries that ring Europe closer to the group.
APA news agency, which is linked to the Azerbaijani authorities, quoted the deputy head of the presidential admitstration, Novruz Mammadov, as saying that Mr Aliyev blamed the EU and the US for mounting an anti-Azerbaijan campaign in the media.
“The expansion of the black PR campaign against Azerbaijan, in close collaboration with some western powers which claim to be interested to develop strategic partnership ties with Azerbaijan, on the eve of the first European Games has triggered a reasonable uproar,” APA reported.
The West has criticised Azerbaijan for what it has said are retarded steps on civil rights. Courts in Azerbaijan have imprisoned journalists lawyers, opposition leaders and activists who have been critical of the government.
For Azerbaijan, this is a particularly sensitive time. Next month it hosts the inaugural European Games and it desperately wants to both put on a good show and also to present itself in a good light.
By ditching plans to visit the EU summit in Riga, Mr Aliyev is aligning himself more closely with Russia and away from Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Oil exports from Azerbaijan in the first four months of the year fell by nearly 1%, Reuters quoted a source at the state statistics agency as saying. The source did not specify a reason for the decline although it came as a surprise, especially after an earlier statement from BP that its oil output for Q1 had risen.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A fire ripped through a 16-storey apartment block in Baku killing at least 15 people and injuring 41 more. The fire highlights the often poor building practices in many Baku apartment blocks.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Baku arrested Nizami Piriyev, a high-profile Azerbaijani businessman closely associated with President Ilham Aliyev.
Mr Piriyev, media reported, was charged with various financial crimes. He is in prison ahead of a trial in what appears to be a spectacular public fall.
One of Azerbaijan’s richest men, Mr Piriyev was the official owner of the Azerbaijan Methanol Company, a large and high-profile operation on the outskirts of Baku.
He paid for former British PM Tony Blair to fly to Baku in 2009 to open the plant. Mr Blair, criticised for taking cash from dubious governments since he left office in 2007, was photographed at a press conference in Baku sitting between Mr Piriyev and his son, Nasib.
Mr Piriyev’s holding company PNN Group also owned franchise rights to a number of Western brands in Azerbaijan and across the former Soviet Union. This included the British high street news agent WHSmith and US fast food chain KFC.
Mr Piriyev used to work in Russia for Gazprom and had businesses stretching across Central Asia.
It’s unclear what triggered his arrest and whether he has been associated with Azerbaijan’s increasingly marginalised opposition or if he had fallen out with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The United States and Europe have been increasingly critical of Mr Aliyev for cracking down on opposition.
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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)